1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a steering control system and method for a watercraft, and more particularly relates to an improved steering control system and method that controls a rudder of a watercraft selectively using two control modes.
2. Description of Related Art
Computerized controls have become popular in recent years for watercrafts. In one arrangement, a watercraft has a propulsion device that propels the watercraft and a rudder unit that provides an advance azimuth of the watercraft. Typically, an outboard motor can be the rudder unit that incorporates the propulsion device. A computerized steering control system can be provided such that the rudder unit is manually steerable in a manual control mode and the rudder unit is automatically steerable in an automatic control mode or autopilot control mode. In the automatic control mode, a target azimuth of the watercraft may be specified, and a control device may control a direction of the watercraft such that the direction of the watercraft does not deviate from the target azimuth.
For example, some of such computerized steering control systems are disclosed in JP5-185987 and JP6-26878.
Those conventional steering control systems employ a manually-operated mode selector that selectively changes the manual control mode to the automatic mode or vice versa. In some situations, the operator may want to manually make a temporary course correction. The need for the operator to switch the mode selector from the automatic control mode to the manual control mode can be inconvenient and can delay the course correction.